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During the course of a five-day workshop and crash course held at NID with students from the NID Exhibition Design program, Salil and Hugo, two Quicksand design researchers explored new possibilities in storytelling through the creation of unique virtual spaces in Unity using a mix of digital content and items 3D scanned using photogrammetry.

Quicksand hosted an executive team from Schneider Electric as part of a Learning Expedition program organized by WDHB. The team had the chance to meet local energy and micro-grid experts through a facilitated discussion format on novel best practices in emerging markets:

Quicksand Co-Founder and Partner Ayush Chauhan and Principal & Communications Lead Kevin Shane led a daylong workshop at UX India, India’s largest international user experience conference. The theme of the workshop was Design for Social Impact, and Ayush and Kevin led the participants through several design activities and games using case studies from Quicksand’s decade-long experience in the sector.

Principal & Communications Lead Kevin Shane was part of a panel discussion on “Design for Social Impact” at the Under 25 Summit, India’s largest youth festival. Leaning on his experiences working in the development and humanitarian sectors, Kevin highlighted the key role of the design thinking process in driving both innovation and impact in the work Quicksand does.

Senior Design Researcher Rikta Krishnaswamy was featured in Channel News Asia’s premiere episode of the series “Field Guide to Innovation”. Along with our partners on the project, Rikta discussed our recent work in Cambodia to reduce the use of plastic bags in the country, whilst also advocating for a human-centered approach to designing new, innovative solutions to longstanding problems and challenges.

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In collaboration with
fuelfor, a Singapore based design and innovation consultancy, Quicksand anchored a 5-day workshop on design thinking for professionals from the healthcare industry in Singapore. This workshop was part of Design Singapore's flagship initiative called DTIA (Design Thinking and Innovation Academy) - a program to develop design-driven innovation capabilities in private and public sectors for productivity, competitiveness and sustainable growth. Quicksand led a team from Welch Allyn, a global medical equipment company, to apply these skills in envisioning a new pre-screening eye care service for the elderly in Singapore.

As part of Social Design Talks hosted by Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art, London, Quicksand along with our partners STBY, London and client Nesta, was invited to share the experience of researching and designing Development Impact and You - a toolkit to help people working in development to invent, adopt or adapt ideas that can deliver better results. The talk focused on a collaborative approach to research, development and design – which included co-design and international user testing across four continents.

In the second edition of the fair (the first was in Seattle in August 2012), more than 700 participants from about 47 countries gathered to discuss how to bring safe sanitation to the 2.5 billion people who lack access to it. The fair in India was co-hosted by the Government of India's Department of Biotechnology and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the support of India's Ministry of Urban Development, and it showcased innovative products and approaches from various Gates Foundation grantees from across the world that aim to bring safe, affordable and sustainable sanitation to those who need it most.

The fair showcased prototypes from several of the research grantees of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, where innovative approaches are being used for the safe and sustainable management of human waste. In addition to these there were also several other projects from other investment areas of the Gates Foundation's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Program – Urban Sanitation Markets, Building Demand for Sanitation, Policy & Advocacy, Monitoring & Evaluation. As part of this, Project Sammaan was also showcased at the fair by Quicksand.

Quicksand co-founder and director, Ayush Chauhan, was invited to be a part of the jury panel to select the winning innovations at Bihar Innovation Forum - a platform set up jointly by Bihar Rural Livelihoods Society and Bihar State Innovations Council to identify and support grassroot innovators from across the state in areas like agriculture, livestock, farming, horticulture etc. Out of a total of 1700+ grassroot innovations selected, 173 were shortlisted and 5 winners were eventually selected by the jury. The eventual aim of the platform is to codify these innovations and help entrepreneurs take them to scale through government supported programs.

Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE), an extension of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, supports hundreds of scientists and early-stage research projects by funding innovative ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies having potential for great social impact. As of Fall 2013, the foundation has committed over $130 million in funding support to various projects. By virtue of its continued work in the sanitation sector since 2010, Quicksand has been invited to be on the jury for three successive rounds of sanitation related GCE proposals in 2011, 2012 and 2013.